Brickbat: Dog Gone

Heike Koenig / Dreamstime.com

Chicago police have shot or tried to shoot more than 700 dogs since 2008, according to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation. The paper found none of those shootings resulted in discipline against the officers, even when courts found the shooting wrongful and the city had to pay damages to the dog's owner.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

As crazy as people are for their pets, it's a testament to the power of police unions and the unbreakable cohesion of law enforcement and civilian leadership that it continues unabated. Even those large cash payouts aren't enough to spur anyone into forcing a change.

[MSimon]

Wait until rapper Shoot Doggy Dog gets a hold of this.

[BestUsedCarSales]

BOOOOO

[BestUsedCarSales]

The cash payments often aren't that good. I don't know how much payment assuages the pain of an officer of the state murdering my dog. I feel like it's more than a couple thousand.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Last year, the department launched a new use-of-force policy. It spells out that officers cannot kill an animal unless they fear for their lives or the lives of others.

The phrase 'I feared for my life' is taught first thing to new police officers. It's right next to 'stop resisting' in the list of things to remember to say.

[MSimon]

The office just has to shout "gun, gun, gun" and then shoot the dog.

The later claim will be, "i thought the dog was armed."

[Conchfritters]

Along with: "I smelled marijuana, so we had to throw the flash bang grenade in the baby crib."

[markm23]

The answer to this should be: "You feared for your life irrationally. Therefore you are a coward. You are fired, with no pension rights."

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The dog had its teeth bared and was lunging at Sgt. [Brian] Schnier," who was involved in the search, said the lawyer, Larry Kowalczyk.

Another officer, Joseph Papke, killed Gucci King because, although the lawsuit says the dog didn't attack the officer, he felt that he and the sergeant were "in immediate danger."

"Moreover, occupants in the residence could have used the distraction of Gucci King lunging at Sgt. Schnier to attack the officers or to dispose of contraband," according to Kowalczyk.

Both Schnier and Papke have owned dogs, and Papke said in a deposition that putting down his beagle was one of the hardest decisions in his life.

Ha, a beagle. That's brazen.

[Get To Da Chippah]

I think Papke owned a beagle that had to be put down, not that one of the dogs he was skeered of and shot was a beagle.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, bragging in a deposition about shooting your own dog? A beagle? That's shameless. The report said it was charging right at him as soon as he came home from work. Barely breached the door and it was on him.

[Fist of Etiquette]

After Papke shot Gucci King with his Glock handgun, Anderson's granddaughter asked why the officer killed him, and one of the officers mocked her, according to the family's lawsuit, which says the officer jokingly called to the dead dog, saying, "Come here, boy."

So does that count as protecting or serving?

[MSimon]

Gutting and roasting counts as the preliminaries to serving.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It's funny since that's behavior that would immediately identify a character as the villain in any book or film.

[Verbum Vincet]

I find it hilarious that you'll slander our boys in blue for putting down rabid animals, all the time stuffing your faces with hamburgers and pork chops and sausage biscuits! If you eat meat, you have no grounds whatsoever to complain about the killing of any animals!

Let's try a quick math lesson to drive the point home: over 10 years, that comes out to 70 dogs per year. That's like 1/10th the number of homicides. If a dog's life is worth 1/10th of a humans life, that evens out to about .01%. Hell, I'd bet half of these dogs were genuinely aggressive or rabid and foaming at the mouth! Most probably deserved to be put down.

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As for the "snide" comments? Imagine the stress those officers felt after ole' roy decided to give them an impromptu orchiectomy! They've gotta blow off steam - granted, not tastefully in some instances - but they gotta blow it off nonetheless. Also consider that any shooting helps prepare them for facing down actual crooks! Kids these days need to toughen up. Try growing up on a farm and then get back to me...

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Besides, the real animals are the gangbanging negro crackheads shooting up their own neighborhoods night after night. I'd like to see some of you big shots try policing the crime-ridden hellholes of West Chicago. I expect the dry cleaners would make a damned killing off the sudden influx of piss-reeking, shit-befouled trousers!

[sage]

Thanks, I did not know that.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

"piss-reeking, shit-befouled trousers!"

Isn't that the new Guns N' Roses album?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

So I can come to your farm and slay your animals without repercussion? Nice at all my friends farms they won't let me because they need their animals, and the wanton slaughter of their livestock would cause them harm.

The destruction of citizen's personal property is no way for anyone to blow off steam. Go bowling, drink a beer, get laid, buy your own dog and shoot it, I don't care but don't don't take out your frustration of having a small dick or the fact your wife is a two timing whore on the citizens your sworn to protect.

And the problem is the police unions that won't discipline bad cops and shield them from any responsibility. I'd expect a libertarian to understand that personal responsibility is important and that public sector unions should be outlawed.

Oh and I lived in Baltimore so I know crime ridden hellholes and police acting like thugs doesn't make things better.

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

Re: Verbum Vincent,

I find it hilarious that you'll slander our boys in blue for putting down rabid animals

Apparently, the courts that ordered the county to pay restitution to the dog owners do not agree the "boys in blue" were slandered.

You *do* understand what the word "slander" means and entails, don't you?

[Verbum Vincet]

Yes, of course. Granted, as soon as I posted I realized I should have used the past participle of the word "libel." Need an *%#$ "edit" function, Reason!

On the other hand, I might ask *you* whether *you* understand what the words "subtle" or "humor" mean and entail?

I must say, I'm downright bummed nobody got the nonsensical "math" bit. And "Ol' Roy the testicular surgeon?" Come on, that's comedy gold!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Guns N' Roses comment.

[Leader Desslok]

At first I thought you were being sarcastic, but then I realized that you were just being cynical.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Why would a wrongful shooting of a dog result in an officer being disciplined when the shooting of a person that has been judged wrongful does not?

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

Because people find dogs adorable.